Monday, June 13, 2011

My Jesus is Amazing

I can't say it enough, Jesus is SO incredibly good to me. 

I am loving life in Indianapolis so far. Philippians 4:19 states, "And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." I have been experiencing this verse in such a real way recently. God has provided me with everything I need, a place to live temporarily while I finish raising support, a great church, and awesome new friends. 

I didn't know what to expect moving here, and God has provided so much beyond my imagination of what it would be like to live here. And actually, the one thing I did expect, He took away from me.

One of the biggest reasons I moved to Indianapolis was to live closer to my brother and sister-in-law (and my future niece or nephew!) And a few weeks ago, my brother was offered a promotion in his job which would mean a relocation to St. Louis, MO by October of this year. Although I am thrilled for DJ and proud of his hard work, I was obviously a little bummed that I'd be losing two of the main people I moved here for. But as we see in Proverbs 16:9, God's plans often times do not match up with ours. 

When I was here in May for three weeks, I spent a lot of time with my Student Venture team. I was living with a couple on my team, Brian and Erin Clark, and really enjoyed spending time with them. I felt like I was a part of their family for those three weeks, and all the couples on my team have made me feel that way. Another couple, Mark and Angie Rumschik, have been so incredibly generous with helping me drum up support and get connected with ministry minded Christians in the area, despite still raising support themselves. Everyone's generosity and hospitality has been so overwhelming, and God has been using my team to pour his riches over me. 

It was after those three weeks that I found out about DJ's job. As I was praying about it I really felt like God was telling me, "I needed DJ and Annie to get you to Indy, but I don't need them to keep you there." And ever since then, He has been showing me more reasons why that is true.

One of the connections Mark and Angie gave me was John, the pastor of a church in the area called Waterline Church. We all met for lunch one day and John and his wife, Danielle were so encouraging and supportive of my ministry. John offered to interview me at the service that Sunday and challenge the church to come around me and help me get connected and supported. I was once again blown away by the goodness and provision of the Lord. 
That Sunday at church, after John interviewed me, a number of people introduced themselves to me and a few filled out cards saying they were interested in hearing more about my ministry. 

Now that I'm back in Indy, after a quick visit back to PA, I've gotten together with a couple girls from Waterline who have helped me get connected, and after church last night got to meet a ton of new people. The community at Waterline is awesome, and people have welcomed me in immediately.

God has provided so many blessings for me already and I've only been here a week so far. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for me over the next few months! I think the biggest lessons I have learned through the process of moving and settling in here is that God can most definitely be trusted, He has an amazing plan for each one of his children, and even if it feels like it in the moment, He will never forget about you.